Qu Qinyue was born on May 21, 1935. He graduated from the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at Nanjing University and joined its faculty in 1957. He became a lecturer in 1964, a professor in 1978 and dean of the Department of Astronomy from 1978 to 1980. He became a fellow (academician) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980 and president of Nanjing University from 1984 to 1997. He was elected a member of the Third World Academy of Sciences in 1993, awarded an honorary doctorate by Seatonhill College of the United States in 1990 and by Lingston University of the United States in 1991, respectively.

Since 1978, he has been served as a member of the Degree Committee of the State Council, a vice president of the College Advisory Committee directly under the State Education Commission, a member of the Department of Astronomy of the National Science and Technology Commission, a member of the Science Textbook Editing and Reviewing Committee of the Ministry of Education of China (National Education Commission) (head of the astronomy group since 1983), executive director, a deputy chairman, and chairman of the Chinese Astronomical Society, a vice chairman of the Chinese Higher Education Association, a deputy to the National People’s Congress, a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress, chairman of Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology, chair of Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology, an editorial board member of Astronomy Volume and Physics Volume of Chinese Encyclopaedia, chief editor of Cihai’s astronomy discipline, and an editorial board member of other journals.

He has been a member of the Organizational Committee of the High Energy Astrophysics of the International Astronomical Union for four consecutive terms since 1982. He was rated as a national expert with outstanding contributions in 1984, as a national advanced science and technology worker in institutions of higher learning in 1990, and as a model worker in the national education sector in 1995. In 1999, approved by the International Astronomical Asteroid Nomenclature Committee, the asteroid No. 3513 was named Qu Qinyue Asteroid.

He has been long engaged in teaching and research on astrophysics, mainly studying gamma ray sources, pulsars and neutron stars, and supernova remnants. As one of the pioneers of high-energy astrophysics research in China, he has made important contributions to the development of high-energy astrophysics in China.

In 1992, he became the chief scientist of the Climbing Project “Multi-Band Observation and Research of Intense Activities of Celestial Bodies.” He is the author of General Astronomy, Stellar Atmospheric Physics, etc. He has published more than 70 academic papers in domestic and foreign journals.

Many research projects in which he participated won important prizes. “The Study on High-Energy Celestial Bodies” and “Research on the Supernova Remains and Neutron Stars” won, respectively, the second prize of Science and Technology Progress Award in 1985 and the third prize of the National Natural Science Award in 1987. “Research on the Products of the Supernova Explosion and Its Precursor Stars” won the first prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of the Ministry of Education of China in 1998 and the third prize of the National Natural Science Prize in 1999. Stellar Atmospheric Physics won the first prize of Excellent Textbooks in Higher Education Institutes in 1995 and the second prize of the National Teaching Achievement Award in 1997.